From: J. Mabe (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Sep 14 2006 - 18:49:52 PDT
To be fair to Bjorn - these films can seem really hard
to find and it can be frustrating. After viewing my
first avant garde films at the Virginia Film Festival
in the late 90s it took me a long time to realize
where to look for more. It took me even longer (well
just very very recently in fact) to realize that
people somewhat near me in GA, NC, and FL were
interested in the same thing - all thanks to this
list!
Perhaps it's annoying to see these complaints pop up
every so often - but I welcome the confused viewer who
wants to see more and doesn't know where to look -
this list is greatly responsible for letting me know
where to go looking and now, thanks to Pip, Bjorn
knows about Filmform (assuming he didn't know it
before).
--- Tom B Whiteside <email suppressed> wrote:
> Look, I'd like to have original Modiglianis in my
> living room. I really
> would. They are wonderful. But right now I don't
> have the extra 25 million
> dollars it takes to make that happen. Fortunately, I
> do have access to
> books in libraries, and some of them have
> photographs of Modiglianis. It's
> not the same thing, of course, but it's better than
> nothing. And every
> once in a while I travel to cities where there are
> museums, and I pay my
> $20 and go in and see the Modiglianis. They are the
> real things, and I
> will travel hundreds of miles to see them. No, it's
> not terribly
> convenient. But it is worth it.
>
> One can rent 16mm prints and project them properly
> and it is EXACTLY THE
> SAME as having the original Modigliani in front of
> you. This is viewing
> the art work in precisely the manner in which it
> should be viewed. And
> yes, you do have to pay a rental fee for this -
> someone went to the
> trouble and expense to make a film, then paid to
> have a print made, then
> deposited it with a distributor who will send it to
> you if you pay the
> rental fee. Some of that money goes to pay the rent
> that the distributor
> has to pay, some of that money goes back to the
> artist.... what is so
> difficult to understand about this system?
>
> On the other hand, if you can't do that, you can buy
> the By Brakhage DVD
> (or whatever - there is tons of material to watch on
> DVD and VHS now) and
> see hours and hours of experimental film. You get to
> keep this forever -
> you can watch The Wonder Ring twice a day every day,
> or more if you are
> crazy. This is somewhat like looking at photographs
> of paintings in a book
> - it's not the real thing, but it's better than
> nothing. In many cases
> it's quite good. For someone like me, whose
> formative years were
> pre-videotape, it is simply AMAZING the amount of
> material available
> today. And so inexpensive!!!
>
> Or you've got things like UBU web, or whatever it
> is, which I looked at
> briefly and it's just ridiculous. Yes it's free, and
> there's a lot of
> stuff there. But it's like listening to Mahler
> symphonies over walkie
> talkies - you get only the silliest hint of what
> it's supposed to be. It
> IS absurd - perhaps Jarry would have approved.
>
> So there is range of possibilities. Some are fairly
> costly, but hopefully
> you will get your money's worth. Some are cheap, and
> they look it.
>
> I get the feeling that many people complaining here
> about lack of access
> to materials haven't quite thought this through.
>
> - Whiteside North Carolina, USA
>
>
>
>
>
>
__________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
> <email suppressed>.
>
>
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__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.